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OF THIS BOOK ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTEEN 
COPIES HAVE BEEN PRINTED, ALL ON 
VAN GELDER HAND-MADE PAPER 
MANUFACTURED IN HOLLAND 








Jacob Steendam 

Tbe First Poet in New Netberland 

















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Jtehold the contour, countenance , and out/oard guise. 

Of SZGEJfdXi- V he/e portra/fed 6tf JCooma/ut jktlful hand, 

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JACOB STEENDAM 

NOCH VASTER 

A MEMOIR 

OF THE 

FIRST POET IN NEW NETHERLAND 


TRANSLATIONS OF 
HIS POEMS DESCRIPTIVE 


COLONY 



NEW YORK 

DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 

MCMVlll 



GONSRf.SS! 
Two Cooiss Receded ■ 

MAR 20 1908 | 

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COPYRIGHT, 1908 
BY WILLIAM LORING ANDREWS 




Contents 

I Prefatory Notes xi 

II Memoir of Jacob Steendam . . 3 

III Brief Notices of Sandys, the first 

poet of Virginia, and of Morrell, 
the first poet of New England . 23 

IV Complaint of New Amsterdam in 

New Netherland to her mother 
of her beginning, growth and 
present condition .... 33 

V The Praise of New Netherland . 41 

VI Spurring-Verses 55 



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Prefatory Notes 

M R. HENRY C. MURPHY, states- 
man, scholar, bibliophile, and 
one deeply interested in the 
early history of our city, must have found 
his residence in Holland and the advan- 
tages which his official position as our 
minister at The Hague afforded him, a 
source of much gratification, profit and 
pleasure. The long list of his writings 
and publications proveshow diligently he 
availed himself of his exceptional oppor- 
tunities, while his library, disposed of at 
auction after his death, shows how keen 
and intelligent a book-hunter he was. 

Among his contributions to the litera- 
ture of the New Netherlands, besides the 
“Anthology” to which reference is made 
in the following pages, arehistranslations 
of De Vries’ “Voyage from Holland to 



xii 

Prefatory Notes 


America, 1632-1644,” “Broad Advice to 
the New Netherlands,” “ First Minister 
of the Dutch Reformed Church in the 
United States,” “Henry Hudson in Hol- 
land” and “Dankers and Sluyters Jour- 
nal of a Voyage to New York and a Tour 
in Several of the American Colonies in 
1679 and 80” (an octavo volume of 440 
pages), translated and edited in 1867 by 
Mr. Murphy for the Long Island Histor- 
ical Society, of which he was at the time 
the Foreign Corresponding Secretary. 
His knowledge of the Dutch language 
which these literary labors display was, 
we are told, entirely self-acquired. 

Mr. Murphy’s library, which was sold 
by George A. Leavitt & Co., auctioneers, 
March 3, 1884, and the following days, 
included 3,142 lots. The “piece de re- 
sistance” of the sale was the set of Jesuit 
Relations* in forty-six volumes de- 
scribed by the compiler of the Catalogue 

*“Jesuit Relations of Discoveries and Other Occur- 
rences in Canada and the Northern and Western 
States of the Union.” 1632-1672. 


Prefatory Notes 

xiii 

as probably the most complete set of 
these valuable books ever offered for 
sale in Europe or America. It sold for 
$3,600, although several of the volumes 
were not first editions. 

The department of Mr. Murphy’s 
library relating to the New Netherlands 
contained many rare books and pamph- 
lets, but the assertion made in the intro- 
duction to the Catalogue that “no book 
related to the subject, is known that is 
not to be found in the collection,” is an 
over statement, for we look in vain for 
a number of books of this character. 

Mr. Murphy was a member of the 
Twenty-eighth Congress of the United 
States and a State Senator for twelve 
consecutive years. He was appointed 
Minister to Holland by President Bu- 
chanan, and held the post until the com- 
ing into office of President Lincoln, by 
whom he was recalled. 

The seals of Novi Belgii; and of New 
York City in 1686, which appear upon 



xiv 

Prefatory Notes 


the lining papers of the covers of this 
book, are copies of impressions from the 
original seals in the possession of the 
writer. The first named came from Mr. 
Murphy’s collection, the last is appended 
to a document signed by John Johnson, 
Mayor of New York in 1717. 

W. L. A. 

Xmas, 1907. 


Jacob Steendam 

The First Poet in New N ether land 



Den 


DISTELVINK. 

Eerfte Deel, Minne - lang: 


BEHELSENDE 


Eerlijke Minne-Sinne-Beel- 

den , Vaarfen , en Liede- 


kens: op ver/cheyden Oude 
enNuwe Sang-konftige 
Stemmen. 

Z>coy 

J. J. Steendam. 



t’A M S T I A 1> A M 


Voor Gerrit van Goedesberg H,Boek-verkooper, 
op het Water over de Nieuwc-brngh, inde 
Delffche Bybel. 1 64?. 



3 


The First Poet in New Netherland 

“ >ere is Steendam, in l us simple garb ; a 
stubp obttu costume of our early colonists, 
anb in frank anti fearless counter 
nance— tlu type of tbe earlp set- 
tlers of /[2eto p ork.” 

— e. 

HE following is the opening 
stanza of one of JacobSteen- 
dam’s amatory poems in 
the first collected edition 
of his works published at 
in 1649, under the title of 
Den Distelvink— freely translated for 
the writer by an honest Dutch dealer in 
antiquities in this city who is also an 



Amsterdam 


4 

Jacob Steendam 


accomplished linguist and a man well 
versed in the literature of his native land. 

MINNAARS-TOEGEVING LOVER’S COMPLAINT 

Segt mijn bekje, Tell me, dearest, 

Hartens Diefje, Thief of my heart, 

Waarom gekje Why trifle so 

Met-je-liefje? With thy sweetheart? 

Die u als Who gives thee all his love 

Si jn hart bemind : And false will never prove. 

Nimmer vals 

Gy hem bevind. 

Seven verses follow, all in the same 
gushing and love-lorn strain, and may 
be taken as a fair example of the charac- 
ter of Steendam’s Minne-sang or love 
verses. His name has been accorded a 
place in the dictionaries of Dutch poets, 
but it would have possessed little or 
no interest for us, had not his adven- 
turous spirit led him to seek a home in 
this newly discovered land of ours. 

The hamlet-like appearance that the 
straggling little town of New Amster- 
dam, with its verdant background of 
woods and hills presented, when the 
Dutch trading vessel which had borne 


First Poet of New N etherland 

5 

Jacob Steendam across the “Mar del 
Nort” (as it was known to those old 
navigators), came to her moorings in the 
East River, is displayed in the view on 
the map in the second edition of Van 
der Donck’s Beschryvinge van Nieuvv- 
Nederlant. A readier reference, how- 
ever, would be to Arnoldus Montanus’s 
Beschryvinge van A merika, published at 
Amsterdam in the year 1671, in which, 
at page 124, a similar prospect of Novum 
Amsterodamum will be found. The 
Montanus is a book that one must in- 
deed watch for and patiently await an 
opportunity to secure, but it is not to 
be compared for rarity with Adriaen van- 
der Donck’s Beschryvinge, the little pot 
quarto volume published by Evert Nieu- 
wenhof ’t Aemsteldam, Anno 1656. 

The Montanus view, with a border 
added, also appears in “La Galerie 
Agreable du Monde ” (66 parts folio), 
published by Pierre Van der Aa, a Leide. 
No date. The Dutch map and print pub- 
lishers of the seventeenth and eighteenth 



6 

Jacob Steendam 


centuries, had a habit of leaving their 
books undated. It made it less awk- 
ward for them to continue the use of 
the same plates, indefinitely, year after 
year, in the numerous ponderous geo- 
graphical works with which the land of 
the sea-faring Hollander was flooded. 
We do not wish to impugn the motives 
of the industrious and enterprising book- 
makers of our fatherland. We simply 
draw attention to the circumstance. 

The town of New Amsterdam, when 
in 1650, or thereabouts, the first of its 
poets landed from a small boat at the 
foot of the only wharf* it then pos- 
sessed, had not yet seen the semi-cen- 
tennial anniversary of its plantation. It 
was a “mean conditioned place,” and 
few and feeble was the folk, over which, 
from 1647 to 1664, “Peter the Head- 

*The North Side of the present Pearl Street 
between Broad and Whitehall streets, in 1650, fronted 
the river shore. Extending out from it into the river 
on the line of the present Moore street was a little 
wharf built at a very early period. Valentine's “His- 
tory of the City of New York.” 


First Poet of New Netberland 

7 

strong ” held imperious sway. The en- 
tire population of that early time could 
be comfortably domiciled in one of our 
modern apartment houses, for, in 1656, it 
numbered (including the garrison), only 
a thousand men, women and children, 
a large proportion of whom were negro 
slaves. The slave trade flourished in 
those days under the protection of the 
West India Company, at Amsterdam, 
who in 1653 granted liberty to particular 
merchants, to send two or three ships to 
the coast of Africa to purchase slaves, 
and to promote the settlement of the 
country by importing the same.* 

Steendam, notwithstanding that he 
was a composer of soft and sentimental 
verses and spiritual songs, appears to 
have beenas intent upon securing ashare 
in the profits of this cruel, exceedingly 
profitable, though somewhat hazardous 
traffic, as any of his fellow townsmen. It 
is recorded to his discredit, that, in 1660, 
he with others presented a petition to the 

♦Goodrich’s “The Picture of New York,” etc. 



8 

Jacob Steendam 


Director and Council of New Amsterdam 
for permission to trade to the west coast 
of Africa, for the purpose of importing 
slaves and other articles into the Colo- 
nies. Some sombre shadows lie across 
the face of things in those good old days, 
— as we are fond of calling them — that 
“ dulcet ” period in our city’s history of 
which Washington Irving was the partly 
serious, mostly jesting, and altogether 
delightful chronicler. 

It is difficult to realise that only two 
centuries and a half ago, a lapse of time 
which three human lives of the not re- 
markable duration of four-score years, 
would almost cover, this city of three 
and a half millions of people — the second 
largest on the face of the globe — con- 
tained less than one hundred and fifty 
houses, a number of them comfortable 
dwellings enough.no doubt, surrounded 
by flower and kitchen gardens, but many 
of them mere shanties. The church and 
the Governor’s house in the fort, on the 
then “ bluff,” where the United States 


First Poet of New N etherland 

9 

Custom House now stands, and the City 
Tavern, later the Stadt-Huys on the cor- 
ner of the present Pearl Street and Coen- 
ties Slip, were the most important and 
pretentious structures of which the town 
could boast. There were only seven- 
teen streets laid out, and none of these 
were paved. Wooden chimneys were 
not tabooed, nor were the haystacks, 
hen houses and pig pens yet prohibited 
by city ordinance, from encumbering 
and defacing the principal streets. 

In 1656, the Burgomasters Oloff 
Stevenson Van Cortlandt and Allard 
Anthony, and the Schepens Johannes 
Van Bruggh, Jacob Strycker, Jan Vinse, 
Wilhelm Beeckman, and Hendrick Kip 
bestirred themselves, brushed the to- 
bacco smoke out of their eyes, and, 
within the next few years, all the streets 
were paved with the round and flinty 
cobblestone — a remnant of which in- 
destructible roadway material is prob- 
ably still in service, in a few of our 
crooked downtown lanes and alleys, and 



10 

Jacob Steendam 


will endure, if undisturbed, as long as the 
Roman Via Appia itself. No sidewalks 
were provided in these first paved 
streets, and the gutters ran in the mid- 
dle thereof, a system of sewerage which 
our Dutch progenitors adopted, perhaps 
in fond remembrance of the odoriferous 
canals of the Fatherland. 

What a contrast life in this frontier 
town, on the banks of Hudson’s river, 
afforded to the old civilisation that 
Steendam had forsaken in the rich and 
beautiful city by the Zuyder Zee, where 
Rembrandt was then painting his mas- 
terpieces and plying his magical etch- 
ing needle; Vondel, the greatest, and 
“ Father” Cats, the most popular, of 
Dutch poets writing their songs and 
dramas, and the famous Elzevirian Press 
issuing its correct and beautiful duo- 
decimo editions of the classics of all 
Europe. Nevertheless, Steendam ex- 
presses no regrets, and is entranced with 
this new region, which he finds a land 
flowing with milk and honey and full of 


First Poet of New Netherlands 

I 1 

abundant promise. In his Lofvan Nuw- 
Nederland (Praise of NewNetherland)he 
thus (following the translation in Mr. 
Murphy’s publication*) apostrophises 
the country he apparently intended to 
make his future abiding-place : 

“New Netherland, thou noblest spot on earth. 
Where Bounteous Heaven ever poureth forth 

The fullness of his gifts of greatest worth, 

Mankind to nourish/' 

In seventy-two stanzas, (verbosity char- 
acterises most of Steendam’s verse) he 
praises the purity of the atmosphere of 
New Netherland, descants upon the 
temperateness of its climate, extols the 
prolificness of its virgin soil, and boasts 
of the fecundity in birds, beasts, and 
fishes of its woods and waters. He pro- 
claims it a land of abundance : the air, 
water, and soil of greatest purity, and 
finally bursts forth in this rapturous song 
and pious invocation : 

*For this translation no other merit is claimed by 
Mr. Murphy than that it conveys the meaning of the 
poet in the same metrical form as he himself adopted. 



12 

Jacob Steendam 


“Oh happy land! While envy you invite, 

You soar far over, all you thus excite: 

And conquer whom by chance you meet in fight. 
May God protect and 

Defend and save you: peace and comfort give: 

All strife and discord from your borders drive: 

So Netherlands your happiness perceive 

With joy and pleasure.” 

But the fates were contrary, and un- 
propitious. Steendam, after a residence 
here of ten or twelve years, departed for 
Holland. Perhaps he had heard and 
heeded the mutterings of the approach- 
ing storm, which for a long time had been 
gathering to the eastward, and broke in 
full fury over New Amsterdam in 1664, 
when the English, under Col. Richard 
Nicolls, captured the town notwithstand- 
ing the stubborn resistance of Governor 
Stuyvesant, and despite the strong pali- 
sades and other defences, erected to pre- 
vent surprises by the Indians, as well 
as for a protection against the “fero- 
cious Yankees” — towards the construc- 
tion of which our poet had, as one of the 
wealthier citizens of New Amsterdam, 
contributed his quota of Dutch guilders 


First Poet of New N ether land 

>3 

in 1653. Again in 1655 he was assessed 
for the cost of putting the city in a state 
of defence. 

In the year i860 a volume of old pla- 
cards and proclamations of the States 
General of Holland and other broadsides, 
were sold at The Hague at public sale. 
Bound up with this valueless material 
the Honourable Henry C. Murphy, then 
our Minister at The Hague, found and 
purchased a folio broadside signed Jacob 
Steendam,Noch vaster,* printed by Pieter 
Dirksz T’ Amsterdam, 1659. This rare 
broadside — A Complaint (Klacht) of 
New Amsterdam, in New Netherland, 
to her Mother, of her beginning, growth, 
and present condition— was sold in the 
sale of Mr. Murphy’s books in 1884 and 
is now in the John Carter-Brown Library 
in Providence, Rhode Island. 

The second of Steendam’s poems on 
New Netherland, “ ’t Lof van Nuw- 
Nederland,” (The Praise of New Nether- 

*A play upon his name. Steendam meaning stone 
dam, and Nocb vaster still firmer. H. C. M. 



>4 

Jacob Steendam 


land) was published at Amsterdam in 

1 66 1 by the bookseller Jacobus van der 
Fuyk. A copy of this little Americana 
nugget is in the Lenox Library, and it is 
probably as rare a book as any of the 
priceless literary treasures, sheltered be- 
neath the granite eaves of the building 
at Seventieth Street and Fifth Avenue. 
With all his wide acquaintance with 
Dutch books and pamphlets, Mr. Mur- 
phy knew of no other copy. 

A third poem by Steendam, on New 
Netherlands affairs, was discovered by 
Mr. Murphy in the Royal Library at The 
Hague, at the end of a pamphlet by Peter 
Cornelison Plockhoy, published in 1662, 
in which is set forth a plan for the estab- 
lishment of a colony of Mennonites* on 
the South (Delaware) River, in New 

*A small denomination of Christians, so called from 
their founder, Menno Simons of Friesland. They be- 
lieve that the New Testament is the only rule of 
faith, that there is no original sin, that infants should 
not be baptized, and that Christians ought not to 
take oath, hold office or render military service. — Web- 
ster’s Dictionary. 


First Poet of New N etberland 

15 

Netherland, of which enterprise Plock- 
hoy was the leader. It was entitled 

Prickel Vaersen” (spurring verses), “to 
press or spur on the friends of this new 
enterprise,” and recolonize a country* 
that the Dutch a few years previously 
had wrested from the Swedes, pillaged 
the inhabitants of “everything they 
could lay their hands upon,” and laid 
waste their houses and plantations. 

These three poems, with translations 
into English, an Introduction, and a 
Memoir of the poet by Mr. Murphy, 
were published at The Hague in 1861, in 
a pamphlet for private distribution. This 
matter was reprinted in 1865 in the “An- 
thology of New Netherland, A Transla- 
tion from the early Dutch poets of New 
York, with Memoirs of their Lives by 
Henry C. Murphy.” It forms No. 4 of 
the publications of the Bradford Club. 

*The tract of land lying upon the western shore of 
the Delaware River extending from Cape Henlopen to 
the Falls of Sanhican (Trenton), which was acquired 
by treaty with the Indians, and settled by the Swedes 
about the year 1638. 



1 6 

Jacob Steendam 


This galaxy of poets numbers but 
three: the names of Dominie Henricus 
Selyns* and Nicasius de Sillef being the 
only ones added to that of Steendam. 

The following facts are taken from 
this Memoir of Steendam by Mr. Mur- 
phy. In it he acknowledges his indebted- 
ness to Mr. Frederick Muller, of Amster- 
dam, who supplied him with the poet’s 
portrait (a copy of which forms our 
frontispiece); to the historian Dr. E. 
B. O’Callaghan, of Albany, N. Y., and 
to J. T. Bodel-Nyenhuis, Esq., of Ley- 
den, Holland (“the profound investiga- 
tor of Geographical Science”), to whom 
Mr. G. M. Asher, Privat-Docent of Ro- 
man law in the University of Heidelberg, 
our chief authority on Dutch books 
and pamphlets, dedicated his “ List of 
the Maps and Charts of New Netherland 
and of the Views of New Amsterdam.” 
A group of students of our early Dutch 

* Pastor of the first church in Brooklyn. 

f Statesman and lawyer, first councilor in the pro- 
vincial government of the West India Company. 


First Poet of New Netherlands 

17 

history was here assembled, the like of 
which we will not soon, if ever again, 
see in collaboration. 

Jacob Steendam was probably born in 
the city of Enkhuizen, in North Holland, 
in 1 6 1 6. Early in life he removed to 
Amsterdam. He was for fifteen years 
in the service of the West India Com- 
pany, and in 1641 was sent by its direc- 
tors to the Coast of Guinea. Upon his 
return, in 1649, he collected his poems 
and published them under the title of 
“ Den Distelvink” (The Thistle or Gold- 
finch), a branch of the bird family to 
which the linnets and canary birds be- 
long. Henrick Bruno, whose four lauda- 
tory verses are prefixed to the third part 
of the “ Distelvink/’ considers this little 
feathered warbler too modest a repre- 
sentative of the lofty flights of Steen- 
dam’s muse, and suggests as more em- 
blematical the wonderful vocal powers of 
the strong-winged, high-soaring night- 
ingale. 

The first and second parts of “ Den Dis- 

1 



i8 

Jacob Steendam 


telvink” appeared in 1649 ; the third in 
1650. Together they form a quarto vol- 
ume of about 550 pages. The first two 
parts bear the imprint of Gerrit van 
Goedesbergh, the third that of Hendrick 
Doncker, Boek-verkoopers (bibliopoles), 
both in the good old city of Amsterdam. 

The first part of the “ Distelvink ” con- 
tains love songs (Minne-Sang). The 
second (Zegen-Sang) epithalamiums and 
triumphal songs — and the third (Hemel- 
Sang) heavenly or spiritual hymns. All 
are set to the music of some more an- 
cient hymn or song. Most of the love 
songs are written in the short, peculiar 
metre of the verse at the head of this 
article, a favorite poetical measure with 
the seventeenth century Dutch poets 
and people. 

Shortly after the publication of “Den 
Distelvink,” Steendam embarked for 
"New Netherland, apparently with the 
intention of making a permanent settle- 
ment in the colony, for after his arrival 
he purchased “plantations” on Long 


First Poet of New N etberland 

19 

Island* and became the owner of houses 
and lots on the island of Manhattan; 
one on the “Breedweg” (Broadway) 
and another on “ Paerl Straat” (Pearl 
Street) between State and Whitehall 
Streets. But it was not destined so to 
be, for he never more set foot in this new 
land of which he had sung the praises 
and voiced the complaint, after his return 
to Holland about the year 1662. New 
Amsterdam, shortly after his departure 
was blotted from the map, and the great 
Dutch cartographer, Carolus Allard, 
could no longer thereafter include the 
cherished name among his one hundred 
notable towns and cities of the world.f 
We can readily imagine that a return to 
the conquered town, and the oath of 
allegiance to James, Duke of York, that 
he might be required to take, involved 

* These farms were located at “Mespat Kill” (New- 
town Creek) and at “Amersfort,” later known as 
Flatlands. 

f“Orbis habitabilis oppida et vestitus centenario 
numero complexa summo studio Collecta Atique in 
lucem edita k Carolo Allard.” 



20 

Jacob Steendam 


more mortification of spirit than Steen- 
dam’s stubborn Dutch pride could 
brook. 

In 1665, this restless roving minstrel, 
whose spirit, Mr. Murphy concludes, was 
too active to leave either mind or body 
long at rest, left Holland for the Dutch 
East India possessions and the few traces 
of him that are found thereafter, show 
him to have been for some timea resident 
of the walled town of Batavia, in the 
island of Java, a colony founded by the 
Dutch about the same time as New Am- 
sterdam, where, in 1671, he was vader 
or superintendent of the Orphan House 
and wrote and published what was 
probably his last poetical effusion: 
“Zeedes-angen voor de Batavische 
jonkheyt,”* “Moral songs for the Ba- 
tavian youth,” containing divers mem- 
orable and edifying matters adapted to 

*A copy of this book sold in Mr. Murphy’s sale for 
f 19. It appears to have been considered more valu- 
able than the folio broadside, the “Complaint of New 
Amsterdam,’’ which brought only $12. Mr. Murphy’s 
library contained both the first and second editions of 


First Poet of New N etberland 

21 

known melodies. Here, in a land of 
earthquakes and tornadoes, Jacob Steen- 
darn disappears from mortal eye, and 
the time, place and manner of his death 
are wrapped in the same mystery that 
shrouds the fate of the discoverer of the 
island of Manhattan, in which Steen- 
darn, whilom, made his home, and the 
future greatness and glory of which he 
in a measure foresaw and proved there- 
by his possession of at least one of the 
attributes of a poet— the gift of pro- 
phecy. 

Centuries have come and gone since 
Steendam wrote his hymns and lyrics, 
and the dust lies thick upon the parch- 
ment covers of his all but forgotten 
“ Distelvink.” The anthology of our city 
now embraces the name of many a poet 
who invoked the muse with more suc- 
cess than he, and some, we venture 

Van der Donck’s “ Beschryvinge,” 1655 and 1656, 
which sold for $55 and $50 respectively. A fine copy 
of either edition would now be worth $400 or $500. 
The two poetical works of Steendam are now simply 
among the things we read about but never see. 




22 


Jacob Steendam 


to assert with less, but whatever may 
be the merit, or the faults and imper- 
fections of Steendam’s verse, his name 
must of necessity, like that of Abou 
Ben Adhem, lead all the rest. As Mr. 
Murphy writes, measured by the stan- 
dard and accorded the privileges which 
have adjudged Sandys the first poet of 
Virginia, and Morrell the first poet of 
New England, Steendam is hereafter to 
rank as the first poet of New York. 


William Loring Andrews. 











BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 



“ And, worthy George , by industry and use , 
Let's see what lines Virginia will produce , 
Go on with Ovid , have begun 

IVith the first five books ; let y'r numbers run 
Glib as the former; so shall it live long , 

And do much honor to the English tongue 
— Drayton . 



BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES * 

OF 

THE FIRST POET OF VIRGINIA 
AND 

THE FIRST POET OF NEW ENGLAND 

G EORGE SANDYS, the seventh and 
youngest son of Edwin Sandys, 
archbishop of York, was born at 
Bishopthorpe, England, on March 2, 1577-78. 

In April, 1621, he was appointed by the 
Virginian Company treasurer of the com- 
pany, and sailed to America with Sir Francis 
IVyat , the newly appointed governor, who 
had married Sandys’s niece, Margaret, daugh- 
ter of his brother Samuel. When the crown 
assumed the government of the colony, 
Sandys was nominated a member of the 
council (August 26, 1624), and was twice 
re-appointed (March 4, 1626, and March 22, 
1628). He seems to have acquired a plan- 
tation and busied himself in developing it, 
but was repeatedly quarrelling with his 
neighbors and the Colonial council. In 1627 



2 6 

Biographical Notes 


he complained to the privy council in London 
that he had been unjustly treated. On March 
4, 1627-8, Governor Francis IVest and the 
Colonial council informed the privy council 
that Sandys had defied the rights of other set- 
tlers. A special commission 'for the better 
plantation of Virginia' was appointed by the 
English government on June 22, 1631, and 
Sandys petitioned for the post of secretary 
on the ground that he had 'spent his ripest 
years in the .public employment' in the 
colony. His application failed, and he ap- 
parently abandoned Virginia soon afterwards. 

While in America Sandys completed a 
verse translation of Ovid's "Metamorphoses," 
which he had begun in England. On April 
27, 1621 — when he was on the point of set- 
ting out — Matthew Lownes and William 
Barrett obtained a license for the publica- 
tion of "Ovides Metamorphosis translated 
into English verse by Master George Sandes." 
In the same year “the first five books" of the 
translation were duly published by Barrett, 
and the volume reached a second edition. 
The title-page was engraved by Delaram, and 
Ovid's head in an oval was prefixed. Hasle- 
wood described a copy of the second edition, 


Biographical Notes 

27 

but no copy of that or the first is now known. 
The remaining ten books were rendered by 
Sandys into English verse during the early 
years of his stay in Virginia. Two, he says, 
were completed “ amongst the roaring of 
the seas.” Michael Drayton, whose acquain- 
tance he had made in London, addressed 
to him, soon after his arrival in Virginia, an 
attractive epistle in verse, urging him to “go 
on with Ovid as you have begun with the 
first five books.” The completed transla- 
tion appeared in London — printed by Wil- 
liam Stansby — in 1626; it was dedicated to 
Charles I. William Marshall engraved the 
title-page; on the back of the dedication is 
a medallion portrait of Ovid. A biography 
of the poet with some of the laudations be- 
stowed on him by early critics forms the pref- 
ace. A full index concludes the volume. 
“National Dictionary of Biography/* vol. 50, p. 290. 

T T 7 ILLIAM MORRELL, an English 
\/\/ clergyman of the Established 

Y V Church, came to America in 

1623, with the company sent out by the 
Plymouth council under the command of 
Captain Robert, son of Sir Ferdinando 




28 

Biographical Notes 


Gorges. Morrell bore a commission from the 
Ecclesiastical Court in England to exercise 
a superintendence over the churches which 
were or might be established in the colony. 
The attempt by this company to form a 
settlement at Wessagussett, now Weymouth 
in Massachusetts, was unsuccessful. After 
Gorges return, Morrell remained a year at 
Plymouth and then returned to England, 
where he soon afterwards published in Latin 
hexameters and English heroics, the latter 
a little rough, his poem “Nova Anglia/' 
which he addressed to King Charles I. It 
is mainly taken up with the animal inhabi- 
tants of the land and their conquerors, the 
native Indians. The opening address to 
New England is really grand. We have 
marked one line by italics, for its stirring 
tone in the English portion, which is some- 
thing more than a mere literal version of 
his Latin. 

NEW ENGLAND 

Fear not, poor Muse, ’cause first to sing her fame 

That’s yet scarce known, unless by map or name; 

A grandchild to earth's paradise is horn, 

Well limb’d, well nerv’d, fair, rich, sweet, yet forlorn. 
Thou blest director, so direct my verse 

That it may win her people, friends, commerce. 


Biographical Notes 

29 

Whilst her sweet air, rich soil, blest seas, my pen 

Shall blaze and tell the natures of her men. 

New England, happy in her new, true style, 

Weary of her cause she’s to sad exile 

Exposed by her’s unworthy of her land; 

Entreats with tears Great Britain to command 

Her empire, and to make her know the time, 

Whose act and knowledge only makes divine. 

A royal work well worthy England’s king, 

These natives to true truth and grace to bring; 

A noble work for all these noble peers, 

Which guide this state in their superior spheres. 

You holy Aarons, let your censers ne’er 

Cease burning till these men Jehovah fear. 

This curious poem is conducted with con- 
siderable spirit. There is this allusion to 
the Indian song: 

And though these men no letters know, yet there 
Pan’s harsher numbers we may somewhere hear; 
And vocal odes which us affect with grief, 

Though to their minds perchance they give relief * 

Duyckinck’s Cyclopedia of American Literature , 
vol. i, p. 2. 

♦ The whole poem is reprinted in the Mass. Hist. Society 
Collections, First Series, I, 125-39. 






POEMS 

ON 

NEW NETHERLAND 







■ 





















COMPLAINT OF NEW AMSTERDAM 


IN NEW NETHERLAN D 


HER MOTHER 


OF HEK BEGINNING, GROWTH AND PRESENT CONDITION 


AMSTERDAM 

By PETER DIRCKSON BOETEMAN 

Bookprinter, on the Egelantine Canal, 1659. 




THE COMPLAINT 


35 


OF 

NEW AMSTERDAM 


'M a grandchild of the Gods 
W ho on th y Amstel have abodes; 
W hence their orders forth are sent, 
Swift for aid and punishment. 

I, of Amsterdam was born, 

Early of her breasts forlorn; 

From her care so quickly weaned 
Oft have I my fate bemoaned. 

From my youth up left alone, 

Naught save hardship have I known; 
Dangers have beset my way 
From the first I saw the day. 

Think you this a cause for marvel? 

This will then the thread unravel, 

And the circumstances trace, 

IVhich upon my birth took place. 

IVould you ask for my descent ? 

Long the time was it I spent 
In the loins of warlike Mars. 




36 

Jacob Steendam 


' T seems my mother, seized with fears, 
Prematurely brought me forth, 

But I now am very loth 

To inform how this befel; 

Though 't was thus, I know full well, 

Bacchus, too, — it is no dream, — 

First beheld the daylight's beam 

From the thigh of Jupiter. 

But my reasons go too far. 

My own matter must I say, 

And not loiter by the way, 

E'en though Bacchus oft has proven 

Friend to me in my misfortune. 

Now the midwife who received me, 

W as Bellona; in suspense, she 

Long did sit in trembling fear, 

For the travail was severe. 

From the moment 1 was born, 

Indian neighbors made me mourn. 

They pursued me night and day, 

IVhile my mother kept away. 

But my sponsors did supply 

Better my necessity; 

They sustained my feeble life; 

They procured a bounteous wife 

As my nurse, who did not spare 

To my lips her paps to bare. 


The Complaint of New A msterdam 

37 

This was Ceres; freely she 

Rendered what has nurtured me. 

Her most dearly I will pri%e; 

She has made my horns to rise; 

T rained my growth through tender years , 

’M idst my burdens and my cares. 

True both simple ’t was, and scant , 

IV hat I had to feed my want. 

Oft y t was naught except Sapawn 1 

And the flesh of buck or fawn. 

IV hen I thus began to grow, 

No more care did they bestow. 

Yet my breasts are full and neat, 

And my hips are firmly set. 

Neptune shows me his good will; 

Merc’ry, quick, exerts his skill 

Me V adorn with silk and gold; 

IV hence Tm sought by suitors bold. 

Stricken by my cheeks' fresh bloom, 

By my beauteous youthful form, 

They attempt to sei%e the treasure 

To enjoy their wanton pleasure. 

They, my orchards too, would plunder, 
Truly ’tis a special wonder, 

That a maid, with such a portion, 

1 A pure Indian word, adopted by the colonists and 
still in use, meaning mush or boiled meal of maize. 



38 

Jacob Steendam 


Does not suffer more misfortune: 

For , I venture to proclaim , 

No one can a maiden name, 

IVho with richer land is blessed 

Than th’ estate by me possessed. 

See: two streams my garden bind , 

From the East and North they wind , — 

Rivers pouring in the sea, 

Rich in fish, beyond degree. 

Milk and butter; fruits to eat 

No one can enumerate; 

Ev’ry vegetable known; 

Grain the best that e’er was grown. 

All the blessings man e’er knew, 

FI ere does Our Great Giver strew, 

{And a climate ne’er more pure) 

But for me, — yet immature, 

Fraught with danger, for the Swine 

T r ample down these crops of mine; 

Up-root, too, my choicest land; 

Still and dumb, the while, I stand, 

In the hope, my mother’s arm 

W ill protect me from the harm. 

She can succour my distress. 

Now my wish, my sole request, — 

Is for men to till my land; 

So I’ll not in silence stand. 


Tbe Complaint of New Amsterdam 

39 

/ have lab’rors almost none; 

Let my household large become; 

I’ll my mother's kitchen furnish 
fVith my knicknacks, with my surplus , 

W ith tobacco , furs and grain; 

So that Prussia she'll disdain. 

Jacob Steendam, 
Noch vaster. 






THE PRAISE 


OF 

NEW NETHERLAND 


WHEREIN ARE BRIEFLY AND TRULY SHOWN THE 
EXCELLENT QUALITIES WHICH IT POSSESSES IN THE 
PURITY OF THE AIR, FERTILITY OF THE SOIL, 
PRODUCTION OF THE CATTLE, ABUNDANCE 
OF GAME AND FISH I WITH ITS AD- 
VANTAGES FOR NAVIGATION 
AND COMMERCE 


BY 


JACOB STEENDAM 


AMSTERDAM 

For JACOBUS VAN DER FUYK 

Bookseller in the Still-Alley, Anno 1 66 1 



























































43 


THE PRAISE OF NEW NETHERLAND 
DEDICATED TO 
THE HONORABLE 

CORNEL1S VAN RUYVEN 

COUNCILLOR AND SECRETARY OF THE HON. WEST 
INDIA COMPANY THERE 

Faithful and very Upright Promoter 
of New Netherland 


ITH sharpened pen and wit, one tunes 
his lays, 

To sing the vanity of fame and praise; 
His moping thoughts, bewildered in 
a ma^e, 

In darkness wander. 

W hat brings disgrace, what constitutes a wrong, 
These form the burden of the tuneful song: 

And honor saved, his senses then among 

The dark holes ponder. 
For me, it is a nobler theme I sing. 

New Netherland springs forth my heroine; 




44 

Jacob Steendam 


Where AmsteV s folk did erst their people bring, 
And still they flourish . 

N ew Netherland, thou noblest spot of earth , 
Where Bounteous Heaven ever pour eth forth 

The fulness of His gifts, of greatest worth, 
Mankind to nourish. 
Whoe'er to you a judgment fair applies, 

And knowing, comprehends your qualities, 

W ill justify the man who, to the skies, 

Extols your glories. 

Who studies well your natural elements, 

And with the plumb of science, gains a sense 

Of all the four: fails not in their defence, 

Before free juries. 

Your Air, so clear, so sharp to penetrate 

The Western breezes softly moderate; 

And, tempering the heat, they separate 

It from all moisture. 

From damp, and mist, and fog, they set it free; 
From smells of pools, they give it liberty: 

The struggling stenches made to mount on high, 
And be at peace there. 

No deadly pest its purity assails, 

To spread infection o'er your hills and vales, 
Save when a guilty race, great sins bewails 

In expiating. 

Your Sun, th’ original of Fire and heat, 


The Praise of New N etberland 

45 

The common nutriment of both to eat , 

I s warm and pure ; in plants most delicate , 
Much sap creating. 

Nor turf, nor dried manure 1 , — within your 
doors, 

Nor coal, extracted from earth's secret stores; 
Nor sods, uplifted from the barren moors, 

For fuel given; 

IVhich, with foul stench the brain intoxicate; 
And thus, by the foul gas which they create, 

The intellects of many, wise and great, 

Men are out-driven. 

The forests do, with better means, supply 

The hearth and house: the stately hickory, 

Not planted, does the winter fell defy , — 

A valiant warden; 

So closely grained, so rich with fragrant oil, 
Before its bla^e both wet and cold recoil; 

And sweetest perfumes float around the while, 
Like 'n Eden's garden. 
The Water clear and fresh, and pure and sweet, 
Springs up continually beneath the feet, 

And everywhere the gushing fountains meet, 

In brooks o'er flowing, 
IVhich animals refresh, both tame and wild; 

1 This article is used in some parts of the Nether- 
lands for fuel. 




46 

Jacob Steendam 


And plants conduce to grow on hill and field; 
And these to man unnumbered comforts yield, 
And quickly growing. 

The Earth in soils of different shades appears, 
Black, blue and white, and red; its bosom bears 
Abundant harvests; and, what pleases , spares 
Not to surrender. 

No bounds exist to their variety. 

They nourishment afford most plenteously 

To creatures which, in turn, man s wants supply 
And health engender. 

0 fruitful land! heaped up with blessings kind, 
Whoe'er your several virtues brings to mind, — 
Its proper value to each gift assigned, 

Will soon discover, 

If ever land perfection have attained, 

That you in all things have that glory gained; 
Ungrateful mortal, who, your worth disdained, 
Would pass you over. 

In North America behold your Seat, 

Where all that heart can wish you satiate, 

And where oppressed with wealth inordinate , 
You have the power, 

To bless the people with whate’er they need; 

The melancholy, from their sorrows, lead; 

The light of heart, exulting pleasure cede, 

Who never cower . 


The Praise of New Netherlands 

47 

The Ocean laves secure the outer shore , 

IVhich like a dyke , is raised your fields before; 
And streams , like arteries , <2// veined o'er, 

The woods refreshing; 

And rolling down from mountains and the hills, 
Afford upon their hanks, fit sites for mills; 

And furnish, what the heart with transport fills , 
The finest fishing. 

The lamprey, eel and sunfish, and the white 

And yellow perch, which grace your covers dight; 
And shad and striped bass, not scarce, but quite 
Innumerable. 

The bream and sturgeon, drumfish and gurnard; 
The sea-bass which a prince would not discard; 
The cod and salmon, — cooked with due regard, 
Most palatable. 

The black- and rock-fish, herring, mackerel, 

The haddock, mosbankers and roach which fill 
The nets to loathing; are so many, all 

Cannot be eaten. 

And thus it happens here, that in the flood 
IVhich, rolling from the Fountain of all Good, 
O’erwhelms weak mortal man with royal food, 
HE is forgotten. 

You've weak- fish, carp and turbot; pike and 
plaice; 

There's not a pool or tiny water trace, 




48 

Jacob Steendam 


Where swarm not myriads of the finny race, 
Easily taken . 

Crabs, lobsters, mussels; oysters, too, there be 

So large, that one does overshadow three 

Of those of Europe; and, in quantity 

No one can reckon. 

. The tortoise, seal and shark; and in your bay, 
The mighty whale and porpoise sporting, they 
The power and wondrous works of God display 
For our beholding. 

And curious forms come out the shoalless deep, 
Whose depths produced by Wisdom Infinite, 
Have never slept and never more will sleep, 

HIS works unfolding. 

The Animals which in the woods roam free 

By thousands; and are no one's property, 

Are reared like lambs, their flesh and skins to be 
For man's sustaining. 
The beaver, and the otter, clean of limb; 

The weasel, which has scarce the like of him; 

The wild cat, strengthening the old, who seem, 

W ith gout complaining. 
Raccoon and fox, with marten, mink and hare; 
The nimble squirrels, leaping through the air 
And flying; which, to craven stomachs, are 

Baits most decoying. 
Bears, lions , wolves and other beasts of prey, 


The Praise of New Netberland 

49 

The chase has long since made to waste away, 
Their maws, with naught the hunger to allay, 
Themselves destroying. 

The elk, the hind and hart which, fleeing, hound 
Far in the forest depths , and there are found; 
And when at last they feel the fatal wound, 

Die hard and crying. 

Of Birds, there is a knavish robbing crew, 

Which constantly the smaller tribes pursue; 

The hawk and eagle sweep the a%ure blue, 

With sharp eyes prying. 
The chicken saker-hawk, with talons fell; 

The sparrow-hawk; the vigilant castrel 
Watching his enemy, till he may reel 

And faint in flying. 

The duck, the goose, the turkey, the proud swan, 
The diver and the heron and the crane, 

The snipe, the curlew, merlin and moorhen, 

The foremost vieing; 

The dove and pheasant, thievish blackbird, quail; 
The widgeon, which an epicure may hail; 

The teal and bob-o’-lincoln, all avail 

For man's enjoyment. 
But names are wanting wholly to explain 

The numerous species of the feathered train; 
And surely the recital were a vain 

Misspent employment . 



50 

Jacob Steendam 


The hills and valleys , fields and forests wide , 

As richly are , by nature's hand, supplied 

With Fruits. Of which all will be satisfied 

By this true story. 

Acorns there are, the bitter and the sweet; 

And nuts of various kinds, all choice to eat; 

Of these the chestnuts, with the rest, compete 

And win the glory. 

And strawberries, which in proud scarlet shine; 
The plum, the cherry, and grape clustering vine; 
The ground-nut and the ground-bean, both, we find; 

The artichoke, too. 

The gooseberry, both sorts of mulberries; 

The garlick, leek and field-salad and cives; 

And hops and mints, with sweetest flatteries, 

The eyes provoke do. 

Within your woods, for house and ship, is found 
Good building timber; in your untilled ground, 
Do reeds and rushes and wild grass abound; 

Upon your border 

Lie stone for every use; some suitable 

For polishing and grinding; some as well 

For masonry and streets. } Tis hard to tell 

Them all in order. 

Blacklead and chrystal, quicksilver and gold; 
And clay to full or bake; your hills unfold 
Whatever art and science seek to mould, 


Tbe Praise of New Netherlands 

51 

Or can discover. 

Y ou ve herbs, both wholesome and medicinal, 
Possessed of virtues wondrous powerful 

The failing strength to raise, and wounds to heal, 
And curing fever. 

Sweet marjoram; and sassafras, whose root, 
Like cassia, does the fainting soul recruit, 

A nd o'er the fields its fragrant suckers shoot, 
Like weeds, to harrow. 
So grow the plants by thousands o'er the land, 
Along the mountain top and water strand, 

1 1 is too strange for us to understand, 

And to our sorrow. 

For bee and wasp, sweet-smelling flowers bloom, 
O'er all; renowned for colors and perfume; 
More, than my Heroine can yet assume 

To name, occurring. 

IV her ever men a helping hand accord 

To nature, there behold! the fields reward 

Them, without any care; no fears unt'ward 

Of loss them worry' ng. 
Whatever skilful science more may know, 

And in your lap, from other countries, throw 
For culture: these, fresh strength on you bestow, 
Without consuming. 

You've most delicious hand and kitchen fruits , 
Greens, salads, radishes and savory shoots, 



52 

Jacob Steendam 


And turnips; and the cabbage you produce , 

In large heads poming. 

The biting herb — the strong tobacco plant; 

The carrot and the Maltese parsnip; and 

The melon , pumpkin, Spanish comfrey, grant 
The sweetest pleasure. 

Exotics which , from foreign climes they bear 

Unto your bosom, need no special care; 

But reach, untended, in your genial air, 

Their proper measure. 

There's wheat and rye; and barley, pea and bean; 

Spelt, mai^e and buckwheat; all these kinds of 
grain 

Do nobly grow: for horses to sustain, 

Oats are awarded. 

You've horses, cows, and wallowing swine and 
sheep; 

Geese, ducks and hens; and rabbits {tame to 
keep) 

l¥hich will be all, both fat and choice to eat, 

And thrive unguarded. 

A ir, water, soil , of greatest purity; 

And all, combined in sweetest harmony, 

Unite, the ploughed up land to fructify, 

With strength unerring. 

You seem the masterpiece of nature's hand; 

Whatever does with breath of life expand, 


Tbe Praise of New Netherlands 

53 

Or comes from out the sea, or thrives on land, 

On you conferring . 

And, in a country, fitted happily , 

W ith creek and channel, river, brook and sea, 
For every use of man. I make the plea, 

W ho can deny it? 

A land for trade and navigation sought; 

W ith harbors which the earth herself has wrought 
For aid to those who are in danger brought 

And seek to fly it. 

1 1 is the land where milk and honey flow; 

W here plants distilling perfume grow; 

IVhere Aaron's rod with budding blossoms blow; 

A very Eden. 

Oh happy land! while envy you invite, 

You soar far over all you thus excite; 

And conquer whom by chance you meet in fight; 

M ay God protect and 

Defend and save you; peace and comfort give; 
All strife and discord from your borders drive; 
So Netherland your happiness perceive 

W ith joy and pleasure. 
So labor may in peace its fruits consume; 

And Christ's true Church fresh as the lily bloom, 
Its mark in you irrevocably hewn, 

H enceforth forever. 

Rule, doctrine, covenants, all in accord 




54 

Jacob Steendam 


With HIS pure word who is, of Lords, the Lord; 
Where righteousness and truth may rest like broad 
And solid pillars. 

So may a city, house, or kingdom stand, 

Which else have laid foundations in the sand, 
And envy, pride, hate, lust, and violent hand, 
Lurk in their cellars. 

But you accept, 0 noblest land of all! 

With thankfulness, HIS bounties liberal, 

WHO has a pleasure garden made your soil, 

That you might render 
Your children an inheritance for e'er, 

Until the Seed of Woman reappear, 

For our redemption. Welcome hour! Who'll dare 
HIS coming t' hinder? 

Noch vaster. 


SPURRING-VERSES 

TO THE LOVERS OF THE COLONY AND BROTHER- 
SHIP, TO BE ESTABLISHED ON THE SOUTH 
RIVER OF NEW NETHERLAND, BY PETER 
CORNELISON PLOCKHOY OF ZIERIK- 
ZEE, WITH HIS ASSOCIATES; AND 
THE FAVORABLE PRIVILEGES, 

FOR THAT PURPOSE, GRANTED 
BY THE NOBLE LORDS BURGO- 
MASTERS OF THE CITY OF 
AMSTERDAM, THE 9TH 
OF JUNE 1662 


) > 

» t • 






* 


















































c 

c‘. 1 
<■ < 
C ( C 
























SPURRING-VERSES 


57 


J poor, who know not how your 
living to obtain; 

You affluent, who seek in mind to 
he content; 

Choose you New N etherland, which no one shall 
disdain; 

Before your time and strength here fruitlessly 
are spent 

There have you other ends, your labor to incite; 

Your work, will generous soils, with usury, 
requite. 

New Netherlands the flow’ r, the noblest of 
all lands; 

IV ith richest blessings crowned, where milk and 
honey flow; 

By the most High of All, with doubly lib’ral 
hands 

Endowed; yea, filled up full, with what may 
thrive and grow. 



58 

Jacob Steendam 


The air , the earthy the sea, each pregnant with 
its gift, 

The needy, without trouble, from distress to lift. 

The birds obscure the sky, so numerous in 
their flight; 

The animals roam wild, and flatten down the 
ground; 

The fish swarm in the waters, and exclude the 
light; 

The oysters there, than which none better can be 
found, 

Are piled up, heap on heap, till islands they 
attain; 

And vegetation clothes the forest, mead and 
plain. 

You have a portion there which costs not 
pains or gold: 

But if you labor give, then shall you also share 

( W ith trust in H im who you from want does 
there uphold) 

A rich reward, in time, for all your toil and 
care. 

In cattle, grain and fruit, and every other thing; 

W hereby you always have great cause His 
praise to sing. 


Spurring-Verses 

59 

IV hat see you in your houses , towns and 
Fatherland ? 

Is God not over all ? the heavens ever wide ? 

His blessings deck the earth , — like bursting 
veins expand 

In floods of treasures o’er, wherever you abide; 

IVhich neither are to monarchies nor duke- 
doms bound, 

They are as well in one, as other country found. 

But there, a living view does always meet 
your eye, 

Of Eden, and the promised land of Jacob’s seed; 

W ho would not, then, in such a formed com- 
munity, 

Desire to be a freeman; and the rights decreed, 

To each and every one, by Amstel’s burgher 
Lords, 

T’ enjoy ? and treat with honor what their rule 
awards ? 

Communities the groundwork are of every 
state; 

They first the hamlet, village and the city make; 

From whence proceeds the commonwealth, 
whose members, great 

Become, an interest in the common welfare take. 




6o 

Jacob Steendam 


*T is no Utopia; it rests on principles , 

Which, for true liberty, prescribes you settled 
rules. 

You will not aliens, in those far lands appear; 
As formerly, in Egypt, e’en was Israel. 

Nor have you slavery nor tyranny to fear, 

Since Joseph’s eyes do see, and on the compass 
fall. 

The civic Fathers who on th ’ Y , perform their 
labors , 

Are your protectors; and your countrymen are 
neighbors. 

New Netherland’s South River, — second 
Amazon, 

For you a pleasure garden on its banks concedes. 
Choose you the Swanendael, where Osset 1 had 
his throne, 

1 Gilles Osset or Hosset was the commander of the 
colony which was sent out in 1630-1 to the Hoerekil 
or Swanendael, on the Delaware, by Godyn, Van 
Rensselaer, Bloemart, De Laet and David Pietersz 
de Vries, patroons under the West India Company. 
When de Vries went out, the next year, he found the 
colony destroyed; Osset and the rest of the colonists, 
thirty-three in number, having been barbarously mur- 
dered by the Indians, and their bodies left to rot in 


Spurring-Verses 

6l 

Or any other spot your avocation needs. 

You have the choice of all; and you're left free 
to choose; 

Keep the conditions well , and you have naught 
to lose. 

Discard the base report , unworthy of your 
ear; 

’Tis forged by ignorance and hate and jealous 
spite, 

By those who are its authors, to bedim this 
fair 

Bright morning sun before the laughing noon- 
day light. 

An accident may hinder, but not change the 
plan, 

IV hose gloss, take that away, you then may 
fairly scan. 

the fields, where they were slain, around their half 
burnt fort. It is this accident, as he calls it, the poet 
deprecates, in the two following stanzas, from being 
urged to retard the proposed attempt to re-establish 
a colony in the same region. The city of Amsterdam 
had several years before sent out other colonists to the 
South River, who, with some previously settled there 
under the auspices of the West India Company, were 
their countrymen, whom the new colonists were to 
find as neighbors. 




62 

Jacob Steendam 


* T was but an accident , which gives them stuff 
to slight 

That land , which, as I know, no proper rival 
has; 

In order from your purpose they may you 
affright , 

Who there desire to live, before you thither pass . 

' T is groundless, ev’ry one may easily perceive . 

Who now neglects the chance, great treasures 
does he leave. 

Jacob Steendam, 
Noch vaster. 












































































































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